From Sweden to India with love.

Tack (thanks!) to the 29 students of Ostteg Elementary School,Umea, Sweden and their teacher Christer Rosenqvist for holding a successful flea market and bake sale which raised $1,000 for Buddha's Smile school. Thank you, students, for caring so much about the BSS children in Varanasi.

Brooklyn, NY artist Erica Harris and friends help middle school scholarships at BSS

We want to give a shout of thanks to Brooklyn, NY artist Erica Harris (now in India and soon to visit BSS) who created a small tsunami of energy around her city raising funds for scholarships for BSS graduates attending middle school. Erica and her fantastic friends raised nearly $8,000. Be sure to check out Erica's fascinating global art on her website. http://www.ericaharris.org/

A special thanks to the Brooklyn Commune cafe for holding a sale of Erica's prints raising $800, enough for one scholarship and a lot of fresh food for BSS kids. Check out their website http://www.brooklyncommune.com/ and enjoy dining on fresh regionally grown food when in Brooklyn. (That’s the Brooklyn Commune gang in the photo.)

Thanks to Erica, Shannon Holman and other Brooklyn friends, Paro, Vishal, Ravi, Khusboo, Rekha, Sunita, Brijesh, and Pooja now have scholarships to middle school. They were previously holding down full-time jobs, garbage collectors and recyclers on the streets of Varanasi. Now these kids are full time students in middle school and their heads are full of dreams. The cost of one year in middle school is $550. This includes tuition, books, uniforms, food, transportation and tutoring. A small investment for a big return!